Maughan examines the power of religion and religious organization, as well as languages of faith, to convey meaning and spur action, particularly focusing on English society and culture in the "high imperial" era. In both local and national religious and ecclesiastical politics, he finds cultures of faith and empire shot through with fissures and conflict and uncertainty regarding definitions of family, community, class, gender, race, nation, and humanity. The multifaceted quality of religion makes it a powerful and flexible formulator of identity, he says, particularly in the shifting circumstances of opportunity and resistance in the late Victorian British Empire. Annotation 2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
